Horror film is a genre that aims to create a sense of fear, panic, alarm, and dread for the audience.

I'm going to follow Rich's lead by using 1973 as my cut-off point between "classic" and "modern" horror when selecting the film entries (three "classic" and three "modern") in the Plan D Horror Hall of Fame. I'll be using some of Rich's and Barry's categories while adding some of my own. There will only be a maximum of three honorees for each category.

Horror Film Up-to-1973 (the year The Exorcist was released)Dracula (1931)Psycho (1960) Night of the Living Dead (1968)

Horror Film Post-1973Jaws (1975)Alien (1979)Halloween (1978)

Actor
Tom Atkins
Peter Cushing
Bela Lugosi

Actress
Evelyn Ankers
Jamie Lee Curtis
Ingrid Pitt

Director
John Carpenter
Terence Fisher
James Whale

Special Make-Up
Rick Baker
Phil Leakey
Jack Pierce

Writer (Screenplay)
Jack Hill
Jimmy Sangster
Curt Siodmak

Writer (Prose)
H. P. Lovecraft
Stephen King
Richard Matheson

Personality
Elvira
Boris Karloff
Vincent Price

(I had a lot of fun putting this together, and look forward to revisiting the idea next year! What do you say, Rich and Barry? Shall we make this an annual thing?)

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Actually started getting on the treadmill . . . two days ago . . . for only 20 minutes at a shot. I'm not surprised that my weight has actually gone up a bit. The scale put me at 328 this morning, and considering my overall energy level, my still feeling a little sick, and that I've not made the time I need to really focus on getting on the treadmill and/or making my own lunch to take to work, I'm not shocked. I'm not going to beat myself up too much about it, but I am going to try harder to reset my routine the rest of this week.

On the writing front, I've been working on a Marc Temple short story which currently has a word count of 2,571 words. I'm hoping for the final count to come in at around 3,000 words when it's finished. I'm hoping for the first draft to be done by week's end.

Speaking of which, I should get to work. I'm on a lunch break, I've got my laptop, and Marc's got a monster to dispatch.

Thursday, January 10, 2013

This morning before work, before breakfast, before the morning cup of coffee, I pulled out an old . . . I don't know if I'd call it a "friend," but I pulled out the scale and stepped on it for the first time in nearly a month.

I fell off of my treadmill-in-the-morning-tracking-all-of-my-food-intake routine at the end of October, and every week since then, I've had a reason or two (most of them good) as to why I hadn't got back into the swing of things. I hurt my back. It's Halloween. I was sick. Birthday. Christmas. Whatever. It's time to get back to it if I'm ever going to hit my goal weight.

I've never publicly shared what my weight actually is on Plan D or anywhere else. But, if I intend to REALLY stick to it, I'm going to go ahead and put it out there. I'd been hesitant because I'm embarrassed by my weight, and (even at my age by others around my age) I've been ridiculed because of it. But I'm going to own it, and let people know that when I first started getting serious about this at the beginning of August 2012, I weighed in at 342 pounds. I managed to get down to 311 pounds last November, and after getting back on the scale this morning, I found I'm at 325 pounds.

I know I'm a bigger guy at 6'4", but this is too much for me, and I need to get back on the treadmill. I hope it remembers me.

On the writing-front, the end of 2012 saw a few things happen that derailed me a bit (some of the same excuses I found/created as mentioned above), but 2013 is going to be AMAZING. I have a support system in place, two short stories in various stages of development, a novel starting to take shape, and a plan. A REAL plan. More on that magical plan later this month . . .

I've had to rearrange some things in my life to make/allow more time for the things that make me truly happy, and writing is one of those things. I was joking with a friend of mine on Facebook just last night and said, "2013 will be the Year of the D."

I've decided that's not going to be joke. I will get to a healthier weight, and there will be more releases "by Derek M. Koch" available for your Kindle this year.

Tuesday, January 8, 2013

I was going to post something about how disappointed I was with a DC Comics trade paperback I finally read, but ultimately decided against it, but I was distracted when Brenda and I realized the US season premiere of Downton Abbey was on On-Demand.

I love that show. (And, yeah, I can admit it. I'm down with Downton Abbey. Now free John Bates!)

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

The Thursday Thirteen is a recurring feature here at Plan D in which I post a list of 13 items/movies/books/etc. of any given category. Since it's the start of the new year and it's the annual time to put resolutions and goals down in some sort of fixed form, that's the focus of this Thursday Thirteen.

- More time and experiences with Brenda. I tend not to do these T13 lists in any particular order, but this time, this really is my Number 1. 2012 had more ups and downs than a roller coaster it seems (I assume so since I've never been on one), but no matter how down things might have gotten, the ups of spending time with and doing things with Bren have . . . more than made up for them? I don't know if that's the best way to put it, but the bottom line is this: I need more Brenda-time. One of my favorite moments of 2012 happened just last month. Brenda and I came home from running some errands or something (I've forgotten, because it didn't matter), and the power was out. While Brenda found as many candles as she could and started lighting them, I ran across the street to buy enough batteries to run our electric lantern while we waited for the power to come back on. Once we had enough light to see, we pulled out an old card game we used to play YEARS ago (when we lived in Montana), reminded ourselves of the rules, and had a lot of fun. It reminded me how much fun playing (non-video) games with my wife is, and since then, we've made it a point to play more games (even if the power was on). And one of the things I've missed in 2012? Not doing as many "things" with Brenda, so I'm hoping in 2013, we can take a few short trips, do some new things, and remember to bring a deck of cards with us just in case.

- Write, write, write. This is also near the top of my list. I'm not going to lay out as many writing goals as I have in the past (I'm trying to avoid setting myself up with unreasonable expectations), but I am taking with me all the lessons I've learned this past year in terms of how I'm the most productive, when I'm not, what my blocks/excuses are, etc. I'm excited about what 2013 will bring!

- Publish. Granted, the writing has to happen first, but I've some exciting publishing planned for 2013, too!

- Stop doing things that feel like "a job" when it's not my job. This is as vague but as specific as I care to get about a lot of things happening in my life right now. There is something to be said for working at something as if it's a job until it can BECOME your job, but sometimes I let things become commitments (or "jobs") that really don't warrant the kind of time, attention, and energy, they end up absorbing.

- Slimming down. I haven't done a Words Up, Weight Down in two-and-a-half months. I'm not beating myself up over it, but I do acknowledge that I've slipped back into bad habits since Halloween. This month, I'll finally weigh in again (slightly terrified of what the scale will tell me), and get back on that treadmill.

- Slimming down our home. We have a lot of "stuff." I grew up with some packrat tendencies, and that's carried over into my adulthood. I have books I'll never read again. Movies I'll never watch again. Clothes I can't/won't wear again. Too. Much. Stuff. I don't quite know what we'll do with it all yet.

- But I do know what I'll be doing with my comics. I haven't touched some of my comic books in YEARS. One half of the closet in the guest room is filled with comic book boxes, and they're a MESS. Nothing's really organized anymore. Comics - some with bags and boards, some with just bags, and some completely naked - have been shoved into those boxes in a mostly haphazard fashion, and I need to spend some time to make some order of that four-color-pocalypse that's weighing me down.

- Continue consuming and promoting media outside of my comfort zone. Because of Mail Order Zombie, I'm known as a "zombie guy," but some of my favorite "discoveries" in 2012 (and previous years) have been shows, movies, books, and even podcasts outside of my "horror brand." And I'm okay with that. It's time to grow . . .

- Cut back on mindless media consumption. If I can do something else while something's on the television and not miss too much or even care, I might want to consider moving my butt from the chair in front of the TV to the chair in front of Scrivener.

- Consolidate/organize my media. This is partly as extension of my wanting to declutter our home, but it also has to do with having too many DVD-Rs stacked beside my computer, not knowing which hard drive has the latest version of my writing-project-in-progress, or forgetting whether or not I've backed up my music collection off on my iPod. It's maddening sometimes to have my laptop but not have the one file I need for whatever I'm working on, and knowing that it's on a thumb drive sitting near my desktop at home.

- Finances. 'Nuff said.

- I'm struggling to come up with a short way of describing getting more involved in the local convention scene, working with a film company, connecting with other podcasts in the area, etc., so let's just call it more fuel for my fire. I don't know what that means, really, but 2013 is looking to be a big year for the fan and geek communities in the Portland-area, and I'm excited to see how involved I can be in the various upcoming events.

- Podcasting. This is a big one because it's been such a big part of my/our life for the past four years. It's not going anywhere. I'll continue podcasting. I'm just going to be smarter about how I podcast so that I can make sure it doesn't become one of those "job" things I mentioned earlier.